Women Horn Players of Chicago, Part 1: Helen Kotas
Hello everyone!
As I shared in my welcome post, one of the goals of this blog is to introduce the horn-playing world to the rich history of female performers on our instrument!
We all know the Chicago Symphony, and we all know their horns. The incredible David Cooper recently won the position of principal horn long vacated by Dale Clevenger, and Dan Gingrich has been with the orchestra for decades.
As of right now, there are no female horn players in the orchestra other than Susanna Gaunt, who has no bio or photo on Chicago’s site*, but is listed on the International Horn Society website as a utility/assistant player.
This was not always the case. Chicago has a long tradition of hiring women horn players, dating back to Frederick Stock’s appointment of Helen Kotas to principal horn in 1941. Kotas possessed the incredible distinction of being many firsts simultaneously; not only was she the first female rostered musician AND the first principal wind player in the CSO, but Kotas was the very first woman to be hired as a principal of ANY section (other than the ‘appropriately feminine’ harp – Edna Phillips, look her up!) in any major U.S. orchestra.
This astonishing human was a trailblazer; prior to her time in the CSO, Kotas was also a member of the Women’s Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and Leopold Stokowski’s All-American Youth Orchestra in Philadelphia. Her predecessor in the Chicago Symphony was none other than Philip Farkas, who left the position to perform in Cleveland.
However, in 1948 Artur Rodzinski became the CSO’s conductor. He promptly fired Kotas. One of Kotas’ students, famous natural horn player Lowell Greer, attributes her removal entirely to her gender. He transcribed his understanding of the relationship between Kotas and Rodzinski as follows:
R: "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Farkas, who is the orchestra's new first horn player. You'll be assistant to him."
K: "Hello Phil. Dr Rodzinski, Mr. Farkas and I are old friends, we studied with the same teacher, Louis DuFresne, and with all due respect and admiration for Mr. Farkas' work, I'm not sure at this point in my life, that I wish to play assistant to anyone."
R: "Then don't. You will sit in the front of the auditorium where I can see you, during every rehearsal and concert during this, your last, season with the Chicago Symphony."
Upon her departure from the CSO, Kotas moved to the Chicago Lyric Opera as well as other smaller ensembles. She also was responsible for helping expand the solo horn literature and rediscovering several lost European pieces.
Helen Kotas serves as a stark reminder of the uphill battle women in music- and even more, women in brass- faced in the not-so-distant past. Hopefully we no longer live in a world where musicians are fired on the basis of gender, but as we know we have not yet achieved parity in professional orchestras. However, Helen’s pioneering certainly opened a door for the likes of such future horn greats as Gail Williams, Julie Landsman, Jennifer Montone, Nicole Cash, Denise Tryon and Sara Willis.
For more information about Helen, check out Heather Thayer’s amazing dissertation which you can find here!
*Update March 23, 2021: Wow, it’s been over a year since I made this post! Since then, Susanna Gaunt’s picture and bio have been restored to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra website.
Sources:
Greer, Lowell. “Helen Kotas Hirsch.” corno.it. Accessed March 11, 2020. http://www.corno.it/Articoli/LGreer/HelenKotasHirsch.html.
Thayer, Heather. “Helen Kotas (1916-2000): A Female Pioneer in Major U.S. Orchestras.” DMA diss. University of North Texas, 2011.
Villella, Frank. “125 Moments: 020 Helen Kotas - CSO Sounds & Stories.” CSO, November 17, 2015. https://csosoundsandstories.org/125-moments-020-helen-kotas/.